Santa Claus is coming to town...

It seems like there is always something new and exciting happening in our lives these days and this weekend was no exception.  Santa was at our local elementary school on Saturday, so we took Amita to meet him.  She did surprisingly well - no crying, no beard pulling - she was very calm as she sat on his lap and took in the scene.  I hope she remembered to tell him what she wants for Christmas this year!

Here she is checking out the big guy up close.

I also finally finished Amita's Christmas stocking this weekend (after 10pm on Sunday night!).  It was a challenging knitting project and I'm pretty proud that I was not only able to finish it myself, but that it actually turned out too!  And the pattern I had was similar to the stocking that my grandmother knit me 30+ years ago, so it was really fun to make one like that for Amita too.

Here's the front view of her stocking... I embellished it with a little silver bling!

Amita posing in her special Santa outfit.  I'm thinking she'll get to wear this most of the winter... who wouldn't want to be in a snuggly fleece jumper this time of year?!?!?!

Here's Amita showing that she's SOOOO BIG and modeling her new cat sweater.

We also managed to install a baby gate on Sunday.  We had Amita and our two furry boys "helping" us install it.  The way Amita was getting around, it was pretty obvious this was a necessary enhancement to our dining room.  Now the stairs are off limits to her!

Amita modeling an animal print hat.  She's keeping it toasty and oh-so-cute in the cold!!

Cats and Babies Like the Same Toys

It is becoming ever more apparent to us that cats and babies pretty much like the same toys.  I feel like we didn't need to go out and get anything special for Amita... her favorite things are the cat toys we already had laying around.  And if there's one thing that babies and cats love... it's boxes!  Amita and the furry boys "helped" us install her new car seat by playing in the box that it came in.  I think the biggest challenge for the cats was that Amita got the best spot in the box and they were stuck waiting their turn (don't worry, she eventually took a nap and they had tons of fun in box too!).

Amita guarding her new territory.  Azrael didn't want to share the space that badly!

Both cats waiting anxiously for their turn inside the box!

And in landscaping news... we spent two of our days off over Thanksgiving finishing our big yard project out front.  Our friend Paul was kind enough to let us pick rocks off of his family farm to help us finish the giant washes that were dug into our front yard this fall.  It took two trunk-fulls in the Rogue to get the base laid down on Saturday.

Then we spent Sunday (while Amita was napping) making several trips with our wheelbarrow to a new home site in our subdivision that had a substantial rock pile.  Below is the finished product.  It looks even more amazing close up, so keep your eyes peeled next time you visit... assuming it isn't covered in snow by then!